Technical Field
This patent application relates to inductors, and more specifically to a vector inductor that provides very high quality factor in a small form factor.
Background Information
An inductor is a passive, two-terminal electrical component which temporarily stores electrical energy when a current passes through it. When the current flowing through an inductor changes over time, the resulting time varying magnetic field induces a voltage. An inductor may be characterized by its inductance, the ratio of this voltage to the rate of change of the current.
Inductors are commonly used in many different types of alternating current (AC) circuits, and especially radio frequency (RF) circuits. Inductors are combined with capacitors and other components to implement filters, resonators, tuners, and other functions. Electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptop computers, and the like are now typically expected to use many different radio communication protocols and operate over a wide variety of frequencies, while at the same time being as small and inexpensive as possible. Inductor design becomes a critical aspect of achieving these goals.